But exploring majors is not what you do in community college. She has to choose between aerospace (SLO or Colorado-Boulder) or Architectural Design / Sustainable Engineering (UC Berkeley), or Structural Engineering (UCSD). If she goes to community college, she will be sitting doing English and History and International Studies (she already has AP Calculus BC for the score of 5 - so not much more math can happen at CC). There will be exactly ZERO progress in choosing major, because she will not be exposed to ANY SINGLE ONE Architecture or Engineering course. Sorry
UCSD’s Structural Engineering programs does have some Aerospace Structural Design courses in their curriculum so something to consider if she still likes an Aerospace focus. Also the Structural Engineering major is in the Engineering college, so perhaps she could take some other Aerospace courses as electives. The best of both worlds???
As a dad (@JandTsDad), and as a mom (@Gumbymom), what do you think, is it more important to go for prestige, or for the school you like best, where you will feel happy, and the major you want most at this very moment?
We are struggling here with the decision making. And, frankly, Berkeley is loosing so far. She has a brother already almost graduating from Berkeley, and another brother at Cornell, and a sister graduating from Tufts. And she has a “almost guaranteed” transfer option in the form of Trojan Transfer Plan from USC (where I got my PhD).
Another difficulty is that USC is her dream school, but if she is still dreaming about it being at SLO, she will not be able to use that transfer option, because SLO will not let her have the classes she needs to have to keep USC option open.
@Gumbymom, they say that SLO’s Engineering picks your first quarter courses for you. Is it possible to take additional courses becides those “picked for you” - to keep the TTP plan still open? (USC’s TTP plan will want her to take GE courses, and SLO will give her Engineering). Both sets are needed - one to keep SLO going, another to keep USC’s dream alive…
@ElenaParent: You are allowed to make changes on your first quarter schedule even though they have selected them for you. My niece wanted to take General Chemistry over Physics her first quarter and was able to switch them out. Also they put her in a Drama course and she was able to change that to a Art/Humanities course instead.
I have linked the Aerospace Engineering Flowchart and the Architectural Engineering Flowchart for SLO below. You can see where she can rearrange her class schedule to meet her needs for the TTP program and while still continuing with her major pre-req’s at SLO.
Prestige is only important, I feel, for a few specific jobs ie. Investment Banker as an example. I prefer to have my student attend a school where you they have good academics along with a good social life. Yes happiness is very important and happy students are usually successful students wherever they go. Your daughter sounds like she will do very well at any school, so taking her preferences into account will make her 4 years at any college a better experience.
Sigh. If she only knew! She. as well as I, knows very well that her dream can change, and look very different next year. This time last year she was dreaming of Sustainable environmental Design. And that’s how she applied to Berkeley. She visited Colorado and fell in love with their Engineering program, and with dad being a space vehicle Senior test engineer, the choice was Aerospace. (And she applied as early as she could to Colorado’s Aerospace). She visited USC and fell in love with the place, and put all her heart into her application, but TTP is all she was able to achieve (both me and her dad have graduate degrees from USC). And all these great places are mixed up in her head because of different majors. NO, she doesn’t know what’s the best choice - Sustainable Design or Aerospace. One of our friends (and older lady, an aerospace engineer herself), said that she might end up doing Sustainable Buidlign Design on Mars, after getting through Colorado’s or SLO’s or USC’s aerospace, for undergraduate, and then doing cool stuff in a grad school of USC or Colorado…
At this point she knows that dreams can chance. So she wants to go to a place where she would be most happy, if her USC dream fades away by the end of the calendar year… And in this case, SLO makes a lot of sense. She calls it “a hybrid between UCS and Colorado’s Aerospace.”
I just went through first year classes with my oldest son. You can swap out classes to what you can get into. Have her talk to an advisor WRT classes and also transferring, if she wants. They are very helpful.
CAL POLY - HANDS DOWN - She would be sooooo happy at SLO! All the kids are so sweet ! He loves it and lived in the Engineering Community. LOTS of girls in Engineering - she will fit in perfectly.
I started to study the web of requirements, and yep, it is much easier to understand what UC Berkeley wants, but here it very hard to decipher.
Do you know, Gumbymom, if a score of 5 on AP Calculus BC can relieve you from taking Math 141, 142, 143? At UC Berkeley this score buys you a whole year of Calculus, even if you are a math major… I cannot find anything of the same for SLO.
If you received a 5 on AP CALC BC - you go directly into Math 143.
You should also look at joining the facebook group for cal poly slo parents. It is a world of knowledge from other parents who have been through everything we are going through.
@ElenaParent: An AP Calc BC score of 3, 4 or 5 will give her credit for Math 141 and 142 but it looks like not Math 143. It is often difficult to compare semester vs quarter systems.
I looked at the UCB AP credit link for the College of Environmental Design and Calc BC only gives credit for Math 16A. Not sure where you see a whole year of calculus. Each college at UCB may have different AP credit policies.
I guess you are right about UCB’s College of environemental design. This is very strange, because for math majors, 5 on AP Calc BC gives you both Math 1A and Math 1B. https://math.berkeley.edu/programs/undergraduate/major/pure https://math.berkeley.edu/courses/choosing/high-school-exam-credits
(But both courses Math 16a and 16b are for non math majors, and they do not go as deep, instead they go faster, and basically, all material is skimmed over, so by the time we are in math 16b, we are already in the stuff that math majors study in detail during the second year of math).
As for SLO, skipping into 143 seems perfect! May be instead of taking math 141-142 during her first and second quarter, she can take those architecture courses and finally compare the two majors…
Questions for you, if I may.
Can my admitted daughter talk to her advisor even before the decision day on May 1st? If yes, how would she find him/her?
I understand that SLO has a lot of student life. But what about the rigor and reputation of SLO Aerospace Engineering, especially in comparison to Colorado (Boulder)? For example, in this ranking of Aerospace Programs, Colorado is #14, while SLO is #42? https://aerospace-schools.com/aerospace-engineering
What, that we do not know yet (besides SLO is fun) can/should sway my kid towards SLO-Aerospace vs Boulder-Aerospace (especially given the multitude of aerospace NASA contractors in Denver/Boulder area? (Please convince me, I love California better than Colorado!)
To live - may be. But I have a son at UC Berkeley. Every week I have a crime report in e-mail from the Berkeley campus… I do not want to read the same report knowing that I have a girl there, and not a boy…
University of Colorado, as a whole, is not ranked very high. But their Aerospace program is the best they have. Some other ranking systems position it is high as #6 in the country…
